Torbay Tattoo Tales

Torbay Council

WINNER

Best Local Authority Arts Initiative 2019

Torbay Tattoo Tales

What our judges said:

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I loved how this initiative brought in a wider audience to a museum, which might have suffered from assumptions about what was worthy of display. It does exactly what a civic arts institution should do: tell powerful stories that engage local hearts and minds. By making local people the source of the art they were both celebrated and other visitors benefitted from learning about their stories

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WOW! What a great idea. Watching the film totally changed my feelings about tattoos. Listening to people explain how they use body art to express grief and so much more, was beautiful and inspiring. I will look at tattoos in the future as a wonderfully expressive form of art and wonder what story it is there to tell. This project is a winner for me - it definitely stands out as innovative and far-reaching.

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Innovative and a really good example of imaginative outreach to new audiences in a tough community

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Placing the community’s stories at the heart of a cultural institution that for many may have been alien is a terrific act.

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Great visitor numbers and way of engaging local people who may not normally visit.  Amazing set of very personal stories on Instagram.

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I love this project. Unusually, it puts the art of tattooing centre stage, it brings diverse people together in a welcoming surrounding that values them and gives them pride in their voices and their ink, and it expands our idea of what art can be.

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Excellent example of a museum working with a community. It's great to see a project like this being a response to a community, rather than something being parachuted in. The acknowledgement of the increase of tattoos in the community, and their importance to that person's identity; then being able to tie that to other arts and cultural experiences is really quite novel. No wonder the gallery saw a change in demographic. This project has two characteristics key to innovation; uniqueness and human connection.

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This is an outstanding example of innovative thinking connecting different members of the community to the museum and each other

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This project created personal pride and improved community engagement by celebrating everyone's stories and individual creativity, really proving that art is for everyone.

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